Saturday, May 7, 2016

left to right, Kathryn Shea ARCWP, and Sherry Robertson, co-preside at Mother's Day Liturgy

WELCOME AND GATHERING SONG

Morning Has Broken #638 (All verses)

GATHERING PRAYER

Presider: In the name of God our creator, and of Jesus our brother, and of the Holy Spirit our wisdom. ALL: Amen.

Presider: God, Birther of the Cosmos, is with us.

ALL: And with alI.

OPENING PRAYER

ALL: Nurturing God, You embrace each person and every living thing with delight. May, we who are stardust, be filled with awe as we experience our mystical oneness, with all creation in the Heart of Love. May we cherish every amazing day, conscious of your presence and abundance all around us. We ask this through Jesus, our brother and the Holy Spirit, our wisdom.

ALL: Amen

PENITENTIAL RITE AND COMMUNITY FORGIVENESS

Pause briefly and reflect on the need to grow more in love with others and with creation

General Absolution by Community:

(All raise hands extended in prayer

and recite together.)

God, our Father and Mother of compassion, through his living, dying and rising, Jesus has revealed that nothing can separate us from the infinite love of God. May God give us pardon and peace, and may we forgive each other our failures to care for one another and for our earth in the name of God our creator, and of Jesus our brother, and of the Holy Spirit our wisdom. Amen.

GLORY TO GOD

ALL: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth. Creator God, heart of the Universe, we give you thanks for the breath of the Spirit sustaining everything that exists, everywhere in the cosmos. Holy Child of our God, you reveal the love of God that permeates our universe. You, who are one in spirit with our God, receive our prayer. We give you glory and praise through Jesus Christ, our brother, and Holy Spirit, our Wisdom. Amen.

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: A Poem by Colleen Fulmer

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51, Create In Me # 780

Second Reading: On Women Priests, by Daniel Berrigan. 1977

Gospel acclamation: Celtic Alleluia

Gospel: John 17:20-26

SHARED HOMILY STARTER/COMMUNITY REFLECTION

PROFESSION OF FAITH

ALL: We believe in God, the Creator of the Universe, the fountain of life, flowing through every being. We believe in Jesus, the Christ, who reflects the face of God and the fullness of humanity. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God in the cosmos, who calls us to love and serve without counting the cost. We believe in our global communion with all in the circle of life. Amen to loving actions on behalf of justice, healing, compassion and equality for all in our world!

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

Presider: Always mindful of God’s love and care for all creation, we bring the needs of the people to our loving God.

After each petition the response is:

Spirit Divine, may we work for healing for our earth and justice for all.

Presider: Healing God, we trust that you hear our prayers. May we celebrate our planetary oneness in our works for justice, equality, and peace. We make this prayer through Jesus, our brother, in union with the Holy Spirit.

ALL: Amen

OFFERTORY PROCESSION

Song: We Are Called #628 vs. 1 2, 3

PREPARATION OF THE GIFTS

Presider: Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, this grain that the earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

All: Blessed be God forever.

Presider: Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, this fruit of the vine that human hands have made. It will become for us our spiritual drink.

All: Blessed be God forever.

GATHERING OF THE GIFTED

Presider: Jesus, who has sat at our tables, now invites us to be guests at his family table. Everyone is welcome around our family table.

ALL: Nurturing God, we are united in this sacrament by our common love of Jesus. We are in communion with everyone, everywhere, who proclaims your mercy to all those who are marginalized and oppressed. May we love tenderly, do justice, and walk humbly with you in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. May we live as prophetic witnesses to the Gospel, supported by the vision of Jesus and the wisdom to the Spirit. Amen.

Presider: God dwells in each one of us. ALL: Namaste!

Presider: Let us give thanks to the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists.

ALL: With hearts full of love, we give God thanks and praise.

Presider: Holy Spirit, we realize your presence among us as we gather at our family table.

ALL: Fill us with reverence for you, for one another, and for all your creation.

Presider: Let us lift up our hearts.

All: We lift them up to the Holy One, living in us and loving through us.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

Voice 1: Ever present and always caring God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks. In you we live and move and have our very being. Your Spirit dwelling in us gives us the hope of unending peace and joy with you. And so, we sing your praise…

ALL sing: Holy, Holy, Holy – Karen Drucker

ALL: Holy One, we bring you these gifts that they may become the Christ Presence. Fill us with reverence for creatures great and small so that we may provide mothering love to all.

(All Extend Hands) ALL: On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat. Do this in memory of me.”

(Pause) In the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine. He said the blessing, gave the cup to his friends and said, “Take this all of you and drink.” Do this in memory of me.”

Presider: Jesus, who was with God “in the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth,” is with us now in this bread. The Spirit, of whom the prophets spoke in history, is with us now in this cup. Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.

ALL: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ lives in us and through us in the world today.

Voice Two: Christ of the Cosmos, we remember that it was you, who said: “Anything I have done in the name of the Creator, you can do, too … and even more.” So, we remember all within our world and church (Pope Francis, our bishops, and leaders, (mention names) who are working for environmental healing, human rights, church equality, and justice for all.

Voice Three: Christ of the Cosmos, we remember Mary, mother of Jesus, prophet of liberation, and St. Francis who sang canticles to brother sun and sister moon. We remember our sisters and brothers, the great cloud of witnesses who have cared for earth’s creatures and have blessed our world with their loving service to God’s people . . .

(pause, mention names, if you wish)

May we praise you in union with them and give you glory by working for a more just and peaceful world.

GREAT AMEN

ALL: Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit, all glory, honor and praise to you, loving God forever and ever. Sing: Amen.

ALL: Prayer of Jesus (“Our Father and Mother”)

SIGN OF PEACE

(Group joins hands in circle in symbolic “hug” that goes out to the all creatures and all people as they sing this song of peace.)

“Peace is flowing like a river … Love, joy is flowing like a river.”

LITANY FOR BREAKING OF THE BREAD

ALL: Christ of the Cosmos, may we live our oneness with you and all creation. Christ of the Cosmos, may we work for healing of the earth. Christ of the Cosmos, may we celebrate justice rising up in a global communion everywhere.

COMMUNION

Presiders: This is the Cosmic Christ in whom all creation lives and moves and has its being. All are invited to partake in this banquet of love and to celebrate our oneness with all living beings on the planet

ALL: We are the Body of Christ.

Communion: Instrumental music

AFTER COMMUNION SONG: Hail Mary, Gentle Woman #700

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

ALL: Lover of the Universe, fill us with awe at your extravagant love flowing through all living things. May we immerse ourselves in the beauty of nature that surrounds us each day. We ask this through our brother Jesus, in union with the Holy Spirit.

ALL: Amen

GRATITUDE/ANNOUNCEMENTS

CLOSSING COMMUNITY BLESSING

ALL: (with an outstretched arm in blessing)

May the blessing of God go before you.

May Her grace and peace abound.

May Her Spirit live within you.

May Her love wrap you ‘round.

May Her blessing remain with you always.

May you walk on holy ground.

May we continue to be the face of God to each other and may our name be a blessing in our time! Amen.

Presiders: Go in the peace of the Cosmic Christ, and let our service continue!

"The Pope can not do everything alone," says the German cardinal, who turns 80

Writing, May 5, 2016 at 22:31

"The reforms will not be so fast," he said. "There headstrong (...) in different positions"

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Women Deacons, why not?

Cardinal Karl Lehmann , one of the most influential dignitaries of the Catholic Church in Germany, insisted in an interview with dpa on the need to open the diaconate to women.

"Unfortunately is spending too much time for Rome to make a decision on the permanent diaconate female" lamented Lehmann, who has asked the pope Francisco to withdraw from the Archbishopric of Mainz when youturn 80 years soon.

"To be honest, I do not see a way for women priests in our church" , Lehmann, who chaired the German Bishops Conference of 1987-2008 said.

we hear scriptures about Jesus ascending into heaventhat are obviously
not literal.We know that it's another one of those stories that is
truebut didn't actually happen,an experience of Divine Presencethat
the followers of Jesus tried to expressin language and story that fit the
world view of their time._______________________________________There
are some obvious cluesthat lead us to see theseas expressions of faith
experienceinstead of historical fact.Among other scripture
scholars,Fr. Raymond Brown points tothe developed theology of Paul's
letter to the Ephesians,written between 60 and 63 AD,about 30 years
afterthe disciples experienced the resurrection and ascension.Paul uses
metaphors of his time and place—metaphors familiar to the Greco-Roman
socio-political culture—to express the truth that Jesus has been lifted
upand lives in God for ever.He describes Jesus as above all earthly
powers,head of the church,Lord of creation.Those are images that fit
his time._______________________________________Twenty to forty years
after Ephesians,an unknown author wrote the two pieces of scripturethat
we know as Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.Our New American
Biblehas a footnote showing that they can't be historicalbecause the
ascension happenson Easter Sunday night in the Gospel,then forty days
later in the Acts of the Apostles.So, while the Bible is true,these
stories are not factual recordings of historical events.Another way we know
that the ascension storiesare attempts to tell about Jesus'
meaningrather than relate historycomes in that there are three forms of
the final commissionthat Jesus is shown as giving to his disciples.One
is found in Matthew (28:18-20),one in John (20:22-23),and one in Luke
(24:44-48) and Acts (1:8).Scholars make other observationsthat point to
the evolution of thinking about Jesusas the Christian community grew.For
example, Luke has Jesus say,“These are my words that I spoke to youwhile
I was still with you,that everything written about mein the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalmsmust be fulfilled.”Scholars say that Luke
wrote those wordsas a basic summary of the early Christian ideathat the
Torah and the prophets foretoldJesus' life, teaching, death, and
resurrection.They were trying to reconcilewhat they thought about
Jesuswhile he was alive and preachingwith what had happened to
himandwith their continuing experience of his presence with
them.Another example is that the commissioning in Luke,telling the
disciples to preach the good news to all the nations,expresses the goals of
the early Christian communityas they ponder the significance of Jesus for
them.Those disciples, as the scriptures tell us,mistakenly thought Jesus
was a Messiahwho would take charge of the state,set up a
government,reign as king... like David.But then he was crucified,and
they began to understandthat his kingdom was not a worldly one.They met
and broke bread and remembered,re-telling their memoriesand continuing
to experience his ongoing presence with
them._______________________________________Imagine them getting
together and talking.What did Jesus do?What did he say we should
do?What does that mean for us now?And they recognized him in the
breaking of the bread._______________________________________That's what
we do, still, today.We listen to the scriptures.We ask ourselves what
they mean.We ponder our own experiences of the Spirit among usin light
of the experiences recorded by our ancestors in faith.We express our own
experiences of the Spirit of Godin ways that make sense to us,given our
understanding of science and
humanity._______________________________________One of the messages we
hearin today's reading from the Acts of the Apostlesis that Jesus lives
in God.Another message that we hear is that,as followers of the way of
Jesus,we are commissioned to spread the good newsthroughout the
world.That good news isthat all of creation—including Jesus,
including us—lives with God and in God, eternally.Thanks be to
God!

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

It was a honor to share mindfulness meditation with women in Oakwood Manor, Florida.

I began with a brief overview on mindfulness meditation, and its benefits to health and well-being.

There is no right or wrong way to meditate.Each of us has the breath of life.

In this meditation, we simply are aware of our breathing in and out.You could use a mantra or prayer word to help you center in your soul space.Some examples are: love, peace, or a word from your faith tradition.Do not worry about distractions, Simply be in the moment.

Relax, let go, breathe and they will go away, like logs gently floating down a river.We will try this meditation for 10 minutes and then I will close with a reflection for Mother's Day.

Then I will take questions about your experience.My books are available for free to this community. They are on the table if you wish to take them.

10 Minutes of Mindfulness Meditation.Breath in and out...Prayer for Mother's DayQuestions and AnswersLuncheonBridget Mary Meehansofiabmm@aol.com

Pope Francis said " No one can be excluded from the mercy of God:
everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes
all and refuses no one. Its doors remain wide open." (Pope Francis Homily at Announcement of the Year of Mercy. March 13, 2015)

Let us pray that Pope Francis will continue his work to make "the Church the house that welcomes all and
refuses no one," including Roman Catholic Women Priests.

On Sunday, Bishop Robert Morlino celebrated the confirmation service and Mass for about 100 area high school students at Maria Goretti Church. The service usually celebrates and prays for a new and deeper connection with the Holy Spirit.

The bishop used the greater part of his lengthy homily as a sales pitch to the young men -- ages 13 to 17 -- to encourage them to choose to enter training to become Catholic priests. This helps to perpetuate what has proven to be the most egregious and deepest fundamental problem corroding the already shaky foundation of the Roman Catholic institution: the celibate male-only clergy.

Advertisement (1 of 1): 0:15

I wonder what my 16-year-old granddaughter, and the other approximately 50 young women being confirmed, expected in career advice from Bishop Morlino. Some of these young women may have been carrying a deep and long-suppressed calling to become a priest and serve God and the church.

Bridget Mary's Response:I applaud this as a new beginning and hope that future editions will feature articles by a wide array of feminist theologians and Roman Catholic Women Priests who are charting a new course of renewal for the church today.

Lucetta Scaraffia, the co-ordinator of Women-Church-World, the new monthly magazine published by L’Osservatore Romano, said that a “hidden revolution” had taken place during the last century with women making an increasingly important contribution to the intellectual life of Catholicism.

But this, she explained, had been “almost ignored” by the Church

even though it had intensified in the years following the

Second Vatican Council when more and more women started to

study theology.

Bridget Mary's Response:I also recommend articles by ordinary women in diverse occupations who are living generous lives of loving service to their families, neighborhoods, communities and countries.

Bridget Mary's Response:I appreciate Pope Francis' prayer/pledge to support the dignity of women as images of God and this campaign to stop the abuse of and violence toward women. However, the church must make the connection between its discrimination against women in decision-making at the top levels of our church including its failure to affirm women priests and the abuse of and violence toward women in the world.

Published in Movement Magazine: Journal of the Student
Christian Movement of Britain and Ireland, in a special supplement “Why Men Priests” edited by Mary
Condren, (Dublin: SCM Publications,
1977): pp 8- 10).

You have to taste life, a real taste, bitter and sweet together before
you can celebrate life. This seems plain fact, truth of the soul, on the face
of it. But what to make of all those liturgical experts who year after year,
gather to tell one and all what motions to go through, and when and why, around
the cold altars?

The dominant
mood, in public and private, in church and state, is something deeper than
depression; a stupefaction. People go in circles, sleep walk, blank faced.
There are no maps. Most plod along in the old track, interminably. Or they go
where forbidden. The old taboos fall in the name of freedom, sexual or
psychological, a kind of mauve scented slavery. And Big Bro grins his wolfish
grin.

Women who want to
enter the priesthood, or who are already ordained, have at least some inkling
of the stalemate within the ranks. The truth of being woman is a good boot camp
for being a nobody; in culture, in church. And ‘nobody’, ‘non person’ is a good
definition of a priest today, female or male, given both church and culture.
Properly, soberly understood. Some say the scripture says that’s where we
belong.

A non person. You don’t signify. They look you over, but you don’t meet
acceptable standards. Or the big boys meet, make big decisions, plans,
projections. You aren’t invited. Or rather, you’re disinvited. World without
end.

Priesthood?
One could huff and puff about mystery, sacrament, sign, moments of grace. These
I take to be realities. I am also consoled that they are out of our grasp,
control, consuming.

And this is the
Day of the Consumer. The Day of Seizure; Don’t Forget It. Above all, don’t
forget it,
women. The caste implications, the control units, are humming. If you
come in and join up, the machos will know how to deal with that too. Which is
to say, the penal implications of the penis ought not he misread. To be
deprived is to be a ‘case’, a patient, a freak, an example. It is To Be Dealt
With.

When something is
working badly for those it was designed to work for, what solution? Commonly
culturally speaking, do more of the same. Multiplied mistakes cancel out the
initial mistake; the sublime logic. What then to say to women who want to join
the Early Mistake? mistaken identity? One has to think of starting over. But
whether women can correct the massive and multiplied misservices of the Hippos
On High—this seems to be matter for valid questioning.

We do well in a
bad time not to multiply the bads. Men I respect in the priesthood aren’t
particularly happy in thinking male. They feel miserable under the weight of
life today, just as women do. That ‘just as’ needs of course to be treated
carefully; women are outside, men in, the difference is not slight.

At the same time,
it’s worth saying that spite gets us no where. And on the question of
priesthood, the ‘in’ male and the ‘out’ female meet on a ground that’s fairly
familiar to each; one barely making it meets another not making it. To say that
life isn’t offering a great deal to any of us, doesn’t heal the long untended
wounds.

A better
beginning might be the common admission of a common plight, male and female, in
the effort to be faithful to a human vocation; violation, insults, jail, the
beetling brow of the law. Each has the right to kick and scream until we have 1) a
common share of our common patrimony (matrimony)— which certainly includes
equal access to ministry, pulpit, sacraments, right up to bishoprics and papal
tiaras (for those who feel called lo such bric-a-brac), and 2) a
vote on where and how our lives get lived, used, spent, given.

Access to the
mysteries, the good news made both good and new. Need I tell anyone we are
being drowned in bad news; certainly bad, hardly new? I think on the contrary,
good news waits on women; I think it waifs on men. It waits on each of us,
reborn.

Please don’t
wash us in hog wash. A big case is made in anti-priest-women polemics, of the
huge shift in symbols required if women are to stand at the altars. This is to
say the least, reading history through the rear view mirror. Such ‘scholarship’
is always late, always after the fact, invariably in service to special
interests. It loves to act as though those in command just arbitrarily appear
there, wide eyed innocents, open to every prevailing or contrary wind, nothing
on their minds except disinterested service of the truth. Thus the scholars
become apologists, indifferent to injustice; and the apologists become
ideologues. They prefer historical jousting to a simple look at manifest
injustice. A fascist stalling tactic.

In such
matters, it helps to stay with a few simple ideas, and see where they lead. But some
critics make history (in this case male history, a bad start) into the enemy,
adversary, obstacle to a better human arrangement. They also mistrust people,
including their fellow Christians; the majority of whom do not sit in endowed
university chairs announcing the facts of life to those ‘below.’ (A little like
life guards scanning the sea beaches from chairs the height of The Empire State
building)

Would Christians
accept the ministry of women alongside men? My experience is that immense good
will is available; people adjust quickly, even with excitement, to new
arrangements, especially when these are presented as forms of requital,
righting of wrongs. ‘How sensible; I never thought of that before’ is a common
reaction in such matters, from the pew or the church door. But from pulpit or
podium, the process is infinitely more tortuous, the minds inverted, lost. Out
of touch.

Ours was a church
of outsiders, from the start. This is often said. The implications are just as
often ignored or sidestepped; because the ‘outside’ character of our beginnings
is of course, taught by insiders.

Still, a cold
comfort is better than none, considering common shortages. We might ponder
Jesus; who, it could be argued, is still shivering on the lintel of this or
that sublime chance! He cannot be washed hands of, he will not go away. A
perpetual embarrassment to grand and petty inquisitors alike.

In all this, it
won’t do to comfort ourselves with ‘Well in any case, it’s psychiatrically
verified that sons (daughters) always kick out the old man in order to come
into their own...’

Their own? The
old man? But Jesus didn’t come on, in the first place, as big daddy at all; but
defenceless, otherworldly, an artisan, a worker, a friend, a ne’er do well,
ambitionless really, empty of hand and pocket, a non belonger and no joiner.

It seems to
follow; all who wish to meet him must do so on his ground. He won’t come in.
Won’t be assimilated. A Jew is a Jew, take it or leave it. You want to meet
him? Step outside, into the dark. But who wants to hear such talk?

The healing of woman bent double, in Luke
13. Nuanced and delightful. I cannot for the life of me, find anyone who treats
it adequately; so here goes a try.

She was bent over, Luke says (and he ought
to know) by a diabolic spirit. Could it be that she was fated to dramatize in
her frame, the fate of women, in that culture, in every culture? No one says
so. Males write history generally; then to place things beyond doubt, they
write male commentary. But Luke steps aside from all that; or better, Jesus
does. In freedom, he walks over those puerile taboos and drawn lines. He takes
the initiative with the woman; ‘He called her over when lie saw her
condition..’ Then he ‘laid his hands on her. ‘ And simply announced her cure. She straightened up. And ‘she
gave glory to God.’ How sublime! A woman bent double (bent doubly) under the
burden of hideous culture and worse religion, is healed of this evil spirit.’
For a spirit is at work in her, not a disease; or better, a diseased spirit.
The culture, the religion, are rightly regarded by Jesus as demonic. The woman
must be exorcised, of culture, or religion. Then she stands upright, then with
all her wit and will, she responds to God. Can you see her face at that moment?

The keepers of the status quo are of course
outraged. If we know anything, we know why. The miraculous is of no account to
them Religion is business. The rule is business as usual. Business is good.

But something deeper than tins is in
question; the healing of——a woman. Her face alight with hope and joy, is an
affront to their consecrated gloom, the atmosphere of a sanctuary which is a
counting house.

Would they, have struck back with such
irrational fury, had a man been healed under the same circumstances? One is
allowed to doubt it. In any case, Jesus is at pains to note that he has
liberated not a man, but a ‘daughter of Abraham’ This is her dignity. He refers
to it, against all custom. A daughter of Abraham stands, upright; stands up, as
we say, for her rights.

In the gospel, the title is unique, where
macho ‘sons of Abraham’ abound. In the Jewish bible, the title is unthinkable.

But no commentator notes these things, as far as I can find.

There’s little
doubt that when the gospels got written, people leaned quirkily, stormily, on
charisms, resonances, right speech, a passion to serve, the ictus that went
further than plod, wisdom and wisdom’s outreach. And not to forget in a
spineless time, courage, raw as a wound. Jail experience and savvy, street
smarts. The range of eye was wider then, the understanding more worldly, they
had more

news to call
good. Passion was in the air, firm claims, symbols pushed hard. It was faith
erupting into history, not airlifted; the underground was surfacing, not lava.

Thatpassionshapedus,Butthenwecooled.Peopleonce diedforbeliefs;killedotherstoo.Butwecome
swaddled in something called security; from cradle clothes to shroud. And who
today dies for anything at all, anyone at all? we don’t die ‘for’; we die ‘of’;
decline and fall. The martyr is now thepatient.

I believe we were
created for ecstasy. And redeemed for it, at considerable cost. Certain vagrant
unrepeatable moments of life tell us this, if we will but listen. Such moments
moreover, are clues to the whole native structure and texture of things; not
merely are such glorious fits and starts meant to ‘keep us going’, a fairly
unattractive idea; but ecstasy fuels and infuses us from the start, our proper
distillation and energy of soul. One could dream the world, the poet says, and
one could even dream the eye; but who can imagine the act of seeing? We will
never have enough of this, we will never have done with it.

If tomorrow or
the day after, women stood toe to heel, with men at the altars of the church,
and in the pulpits—what then? Would we have the same old church? We would
probably have the same old world. And that, in the old phrase, ought to give
pause.

If all those
destructive cuts and thrusts had disappeared in Christ, as Paul says they were
meant to; if all those divisions and hatreds and put downs (a few of which Paul
helped along, on the side)— if these disappeared tomorrow, and if this
vanishing of the old disorder of things were made clear heyong doubt, were
reflected in service, worship, office, dignity—why, what then? We would
probably have the same old world.

Probably. But
at least one element of that world, which thinks of itself a~ drawn forth from that
world, differing from that world, opposed to that world’s rule and conduct—at
least that element, that yeast, that little flock, that tight knit unfearing
witnessing knot of trouble makers—at least this would once have spoken and been
heard, would be something to turn to. (Would, (take it or leave it), be
something else than the fitful, selfish, death ridden world. And in this sense
the world would no longer be the same. It would have lost all claim over us,

There is
nothing more crushing in fact, and most revolting to the moral nostril, than a
church which ignores the outcry of the disenfranchised. We’ve all suffered
under it, our flesh torn asunder with the sense of nightmarish unreality, the
wound in the very nature of things. Let the world act in such a way, let the
megacorporations or the armed forces or the state departments act this way. It
is the way of the world; dog eat dog, devil take the hindmost. But what shall
we do, what is to become of us, when this mechanized macho spirit infests
the church and turns on us, claw and tooth? We go hoarse, talking to statuary
with chipped ears; we lose spirit, we give up. And we bring home bad news, too
often for our own good; we begin to look as though it were true.

Those who
are lucky (my own luck is good) find a few friends who help cut the knots, free
up the soul. And try as best we may, to do good work ourselves; that news gets
around.

I wish someone
could draw us out of trivia, where many are trapped. I wish someone could draw
us out of trauma. Sanity? We have a monstrous public scene, inhuman authority,
the dance of death, people reduced to a quivering jelly. And then the trivial,
much of it in the name of religion; the children’s hour at church, extended to 24 hours per day.
Adults treated like children.

I wish someone could help us get
sane, or stay sane.

I wish someone
could cleanse and heal our eyesight, help us turn our wooden heads away from
non questions, false questions, destructive questions. I mean the questions
that a straight faced straight jacketed culture keeps pushing like crazy. Like,
how many millions can we kill and still get away with it. Or, why not a bit
more experimentation on prisoners. Or, let’s go back to capital punishment,
that’ll show those muggers, crooks, killers once and for all. Or, let’s cut the
welfare system, there are too many chiselers among the poor. Or, let’s sell the
latest lethal toys to both sides of a dispute; that way, we get the buck and
they get the bang. Or, let’s get massive abortion going, there’s not enough
food and housing and jobs around for people (which is to say, for us, our
bottomless bellies)—let alone for the unborn.

The question
of alternatives today. People ask, with varying degrees of despair, where they
might go. The question is all the more grievous, as voiced by people of
stature, merit, intelligence; who love the church, long to give of their lives.
And they witness the imbecility, connivance, wheeling, base politics, neglect
of the poor, defamation of Christ’s spirit. Where to go, when in good
conscience, one can hardly stay? Up till recently, it was publicly titillating,
a story’, news, when one ‘left the church.’ Now the meaning of the phrase is
clouded, the act brings yawns of ennui.

Part of the
trouble is that so few who walked out, landed anywhere. Frying pan to fire,
they left the church and the culture swallowed them whole. It seems better as a
rule, to hang around where one was born, trying as best one may, to make it
with a few friends, family, to do what one can
in the common life; instead of launching out in the wilds, by and large more
savage and unresponsive than the church.

Unless of course, there is manifest injustice, against one’s person,
one’s convictions. In which case, one is advised to take chances, yell, loud
and clear, and walk out yelling. (But have a landing pad as well as a launching
pad!)

But the weight is in favor of
hanging on, I think.

I’m struck that
the women are battering at the church doors, just when everything in church and
culture, is announcing an ‘end of things’. Not the end of the world maybe
(though that could he argued too, soberly discussed as it is by the nuclear
bandits.) But certainly the end of the culture as we know it, as
we were born into it, and came to self understanding by resisting it...

Women have
always washed corpses and prepared them for burial. Women are in charge of
delivery rooms—in more ways than one. A metaphor for today? Women will make the
death decent and birth possible.

Sunday at St.
Stephen’s in Washington. This is one of very few parishes that took in street
people during the cruel winter months, housed and fed them. They also welcomed
the peace community from Jonah House, when they sought a place to pray and plan
for Holy Week. So it was quite natural and moving and befitting that I be
invited to preach; a homecoming.

The eucharist was
conducted by women. And they invited me to serve communion, along with several
others. Black, white, young, old; and women orchestrating, setting the tone,
announcing with authority, reverence, verve, the Lord’s body and blood.

It was
overwhelming. (Most worship today is crashingly underwhelming.) It was like a
quiet expedition of a few friends, to the other side of the moon, from this
clamorous and polluted side. Solvitur
ambulando. The absurd sexist knot of the centuries, tightened by macho
muscle and muddle, was cut.

And all so
naturally. The children wandered quietly about, the folk prayed, talked up,
sang, took
communion. No one seemed to think of anything that moment, beyond the
sublime faith and bread and death and hope that were on the air, was taking
place. I wondered if a bigger stir would have gone through us, if Jesus had
walked through the chancel door. I doubt it

How did all
this come about, how did great changes get proposed, accepted, even rejoiced
at! One could note the absence of hyperpsychologizing, expertise, sensitivity
session, expensive gurus imported for hot and heavy breathing, shrinkings,
touchy feely follies, inflations of spirit—all that plague of self indul-
gence. No, the people met with their pastor, they prayed together, struggled,
things were worked through. One notes something else. Liturgy here is no fetish
or idol; the god is not fed on the
hour, Enshrined, to deplete and suck off life energies. The same parish that
welcomes women ministers, feeds and houses the homeless and hungry. The parish
also blesses and helps those who prepare for non violence at the pentagon, in
defense of life. The main business of the parish is not maintaining a nest,
womb, space station, esthetic cave for the middle class. It is stewardship and
service, up close, day after day, blow hot, blow cold. Such conduct I think,
accords with, and conferssanity.

Thus what might be considered audacious, innovative elsewhere, is taken
for granted here. I saw no boasters in the assembly; people had the look of
those who work at their faith. And the media were absent. Two good signs.

On despair; it
is utterly rational, it can offer 50 perfectly
plausible reasons why it should be in everyone’s better home and garden.
Beginning with this one; Made In America.
Hope on the other hand, offers no reason for its existence, no come on, no
commercial. It has no goals, no five years plans, no assurance it will be
around tomorrow. IF is (like God) essentially useless. Hope will not ease life
nor make money while you sleep; it is neither an energy pill nor a (non
addictive) sleep inducer.

Despair is a
cultural conclusion, deductive. Anyone can own one; time payments, easily
arranged. Read the clock on the cover of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the
stock market report, the rising index of food costs, the........

Hope is something
else; a gift Paul calls it, a grace. Its highest expression is an irony;
‘hoping against hope.’ You take all the reasons for giving up, you admit their
weight, you grant their crushing power, you wince and cry out—then you toss
them off your back. And you go on.

I think of these
things; Philip in jail once more, a six month sentence for the Holy Week blood
pouring at the pentagon. This month is the tenth anniversary of Catonsville.
He’s now served over four years in jail, speaking truth to power. Has the
country changed, has anything changed! Have people struck out on a new path,
are they giving a new example? The questions seem to me an invitation to
despair. The proper answer is, things are worse than ever.

But that’s
beside the point. The point of hope; which is, Philip has been faithful, so
have our friends. So would I be. Hope on!